


The City's Defenders

by Ghost0



Series: New York Underground [9]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Defenders (Marvel TV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:35:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28249998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ghost0/pseuds/Ghost0
Summary: The ultimate fight between The Defenders and the Sinister Six is finally here! Watch Peter take on the resurrected Mysterio one last time! Will he have what it takes to win?
Series: New York Underground [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053425
Kudos: 2





	The City's Defenders

Dex started off by changing the target of one of his wrist guns. He fired at both Luke and Daredevil as they both came closer. But once he saw that bullets literally didn’t do anything, he brought all of his attention on Matt. A Billy club was thrown by Matt, but Dex moved out of the way. The two then came at each other and engaged in hand to hand combat. Gargan grinned and moved towards the bulletproof man, who was being followed now by just the sword wielding woman. His mechanical tail came out, a spike springing out of the cannon at the end in an attempt to stab Colleen. She moved out of the way, but was hit when he made the tail swung to the side and knock her off her feet. While this allowed Luke to get close to throw a few punches, Gargan was quick enough to dodge and maneuver out of the way. Tightening his fist, he tried to punch Cage right across his face. He was wearing green colored mechanical gloves that helped give him extra strength, and they absorbed most of the impact that came from colliding with Cage’s toughened skin. But Gargan still gritted his teeth when he felt the full force. Luke felt the punch, but it wasn’t enough to seriously disorient him. The tail reacted to Gargan’s thoughts and wrapped itself around Luke’s body. As it tried to squeeze Luke and crush him, Colleen got up and tried to distract Gargan. The leg was able to extend out of the pack Gargan was wearing so he was able to move and fight back against Colleen.

“What the Hell are you wearing?” Trish stood several feet away from Jessica. She looked over her friend in her new outfit. “Are you auditioning for ‘Cats’ or are you hear to murder sixteen-year-old kid?”

“Jess, they didn’t tell me anything about him.” Trish tried to explain. “They just said they could help get me off the Raft if I can help them track down a fugitive.”

Jessica sighed. “I believe that. But I also believe that you might have gone through killing him if this played out differently. Besides, how old do you think is old enough to kill a wanted criminal? Do you wait until they just hit that legal age or do you have a rule that says they should be old enough to drink?” 

Trish recognized what is about to happen, transitioning into a ready stance. “I never want to fight you Jessica. But I did it once and I will do it again.”

Jessica looked around her. She watched all the others fight, and then looked out to all the people that stayed to record everything going on despite police trying to push everyone back. “I never thought I would end up in the news like this. Or actually fight with other people. But here I am, doing that again.” She turned back around and clenched her fists. The two sisters lunged at each other, the convict trying to use her speed to her advantage while Jessica tried to find spots in her outfits that aren’t as guarded.

High above them, Peter and Adrian were fighting each other. One of the Vulture’s mechanical talons reached out to scratch Peter across his chest. He fell for a moment before shooting a web to glide. The slash reignited the pain from Kraven’s wound, and his suit was torn apart on his chest. A puff of green smoke appeared in front of him, showing Mysterio. Surprised, Peter let go and found himself falling fast. He reached out to connect to the side of the building. Beck watched from the ground, smiling underneath his helmet as the illusion of him in Peter’s path caught him off guard. 

While Peter was quick enough to slow his descent, he still ended up hitting hard on top of a car. As he tried to get up, he ended up rolling over and hitting the ground. He pushed himself up on one knee. But he didn’t have time to catch his breath. Instinctively, he rolled out of the way before miniature rockets could hit him, instead hitting the car he landed on and making it explode. Peter tried to hit Mysterio with another web, but he grabbed it and pulled hard. Peter flew across the air towards his opponent. A hand wrapped around his throat as he slammed the wall crawler onto the ground. Adrian looked down from the sky, his face covered by a mask as he watched the entire scene on the ground unfold.

Mysterio punched Peter in the face as hard as he could. Then he followed it up with several more punches. The kid tried to find a way to slip out of his grip, trying to ge this fingers in between his neck and Mysterio’s hand. But Peter grew weaker and didn’t have the strength to fight back. Mysterio stopped his barrage, reaching down to pull the mask off Peter’s head. “I want to see the lights go out.” Peter looked up, nose coming from his broken nose and a black eye on his left side. Mysterio brought his fist back up in the air one more time.

An electric blast hit Mysterio right in the chest. The impact forced Mysterio off and away from Peter. Vulture was practically hovering above the ground, several feet away from where Peter laid. Adrian pushed forward, coming higher up and having one of his talons wrap itself around Mysterio’s helmet bowl. It cracked, the sound of it starting to break under the force of Vulture’s talon was loud enough for Peter to hear. As Peter forced himself to get up, he picked his head up and saw Mystero wrap his hands around the blade forcing themselves through his helmet and tried to pull them out. Spider-Man stood up straight, taking in slow deep breaths as he saw Vulture turn Mysterio’s body around. The two made eye contact, a look exchanged that told everything. Peter lunged forward, and Vulture let go of Mysterio’s helmet. As soon as he did, Peter punched the back of the glass helmet and it shattered into pieces. 

He stumbled forward. After regaining a sense of balance, he turned around and exposed his face, the face of Quentin Beck. Peter was faced with a look of rage that kind of intimidated him a bit. His resurrected enemy came forward and the two exchanged blows. The people from the crowd got louder, some of them managing to use their phones to get a good look at the face underneath Mysterio’s helmet. Several of the officers who moved away from the barricade and kept watch over the brawl noticed the face. While the thought crossed their minds to try and go in, they knew they were out of their depth. 

Several of the people in the crowd being held back were reporters that were broadcasting live. Norman and Melissa were watching the footage from Norman’s from their hidden research base. He had his arms crossed as he stood and stared at the screen. Melissa sat down, leaning forward as she nervously tapped her fingers together. “We might have passed the point where we can’t salvage this Norman. Having them have any of the files from our home was one thing when we were sure they couldn’t be taken seriously by the press. But they took it to that group and they have uploaded everything that was on it!”

“Where the Hell did they find a member of the Rising Tide?” Norman asked, but he knew that he wouldn’t get a response. He shook his head. “We can spin this. I know we can.”

She looked towards him. “We might be able to if we end up winning today. But what if we lose?”

He didn’t turn around, kept staring forward. “We will win. Just have to trust in Harry…that he found a way to help ensure victory. Whatever that means.” He whispered the last sentence to himself. Both of them resumed watching the fight play out.

While Luke was able to push back against the force of Gargan’s tail, he couldn’t quite break free. Colleen found an opportunity to crouch down, sweep her leg to knock her opponent onto the ground. Her sword glowed white as she got up and turned around. She brought her weapon up and swung down hard, the blade slicing through Gargan’s tail. Sparks flew as it was disconnected, the part around Luke fell down onto the ground. After giving his partner a high five, he picked up Gargan and punched him hard enough to knock him out cold. Walking towards the cops, he tossed them Gargan’s unconscious body. He gave them a nod before turning back around. “You want the man in black or kitty cat?” He asked her. 

She looked between the two other fights. “Well, Matt’s fighting style is more similar to mine. We can work off each other.” Luke nodded, turning his attention to the fight playing out between Jessica and Trish. Jessica was getting some good hits in, but Trish was managing to give as good as she got, even drawing some blood. But as she tried to jump over her, Luke reached up and grabbed her leg. He forced her down onto the ground, slamming her body. She groaned as her body hit the hard pavement. Jessica looked to Luke, he held up his fist to her. He raised an eyebrow, waiting for her. Rolling her eyes, she gave him a fist bump.

Colleen slid her body across the ground to try and get Dex to fall over her. But as he was falling backwards, he managed to cover and roll until he sprung back onto his feet. Matt and Colleen went from both sides, forcing him to defend instead of attack. She felt the man in black’s focus lean more towards Matt, only treating her with the minimum required amount in order to stay on his feet. Clearing her mind, her fist glowed bright. Pulling back, she waited for just the right moment where Dex started to pull his right hand back as he prepared to deliver a blow. But he never got the chance to give it, because it was that moment that she pushed forward and her fist hit him in the chest, a perfect bullseye. He flew back a little bit and fell onto the ground. Matt walked over and punched him a couple of times to get him to stay down.

There were people that were starting to cheer for those fighting those recruited for tracking down Peter Parker. It seemed as though at least some were already accepting what had been revealed at face value. Karen noticed this as she watched the news from home of David Lieberman, also known as Micro. He used that name to reach out to active members of the Rising Tide to release the files that were gathered on the drive Felicia gave to her. Willing to help someone falsely accused and running from the law, especially when asked by someone who knew Frank, he and his wife let her stay until the encounter in Times Square was over. The kids were watching intensely, David held Sarah’s hand as they sat on the couch. Karen stood behind them and held her arms as she nervously watched. Getting the truth out was a challenge, but getting out of this isn’t exactly easy, even for these guys.  
Soon, the only two left fighting were Quentin and Peter. Both without masks and sporting their own wounds. Adrian flew up and watched from the top of a building. He wanted to make sure this was over before making his escape. Quentin punched Peter in his chest, increasing the pain from Adrian’s slash and Kraven’s wound. Peter tried to back away but fell backwards. The man known as Mysterio moved closer, and a couple of Peter’s allies also made a little movement in an effort to interfere.

But in a second, the fight with Mysterio ended. A bullet pierced through his head, cracking open his head and killing him before his body hit the pavement. There were several screams from the nearby crowd. One of the news cameras was in a position to spot the man who fired the bullet. He was on the other side of the brawl, his gun resting on fop of the hood of a car. As the man stood up to leave, the camera managed to make out the picture of a white skull on his vest before the man rushed back into the darkness. Peter didn’t know how to respond for a moment, still on the ground. It seemed like no one there knew how to respond at first either. But Daredevil approached Peter and extended his hand to the young man. Peter grabbed and tried to stand straight.

“All right there?” Matt asked, letting Peter wrap his arm around his shoulders. 

“I think so…I don’t think I can join the WWE anymore though.”

“Aw, and I was so looking forward to being your manager.” Jessica commented. Up above, Adrian was getting ready to leave. But as he turned away from the ground and looked to his right, he was genuinely surprised to see someone fly towards the scene below. The crowd pointed up to the sky and called out in shock as they saw what was coming. 

When Peter looked up, he felt his heart skip a beat in shock and fear. The man up above was standing on top of a purple glider. His outfit had similarities to Dex’s armored outfit. It even seemed to have something on his forearms that allowed him to shoot some kind of projectile. But it was colored green instead of black. The torso was covered with a purple piece of clothing that came with a hood that came up over his head. There was some sort of mask covering his face, one that exposed his eyes. It might have been Peter’s partially blurred vision, but he could swear that mask was smiling gleefully down on him. He had one arm extended out to his side, holding MJ up the hair. She struggled in his grip, her hands reaching up to grab onto the guy’s arm and tried to reach her feet out to stand on the glider but not having any success.

“Peter Parker!” He yelled down below. It was a younger voice, maybe not too much older than Peter himself. “Surrender now or her death will be on your hands!”

“MJ!” Peter tried to shoot a web to jump up, but his injuries sent pain throughout his body and forced him onto his knees.

“Sweet Christmas!” Luke said. Behind him and Jessica, Trish got up and tried to slowly back away just a little bit. She found her chance to escape from the crowd, just as when the green man on the glider let go of MJ.

The crowd screamed as they watched the young kidnapped girl begin to fall down the air. Adrian swore under his breath and pushed off to try and grab her. Peter yelled out, the pain too much, stopping him from making any sudden movements or attempts to try and pull up on a web to try and reach her. Adrian flew downward fast and tried to catch her.

MJ’s arm suddenly reached upward towards the man who let her go. Her arm turned completely black in an instant and extended all the way up to grab onto the man’s chest. She felt herself pulling upwards, to her surprise and Harry’s shock and confusion. Her other hand turned pitch black, forming a fist and collided with Harry’s mask. The force made him lose control of his glider, spiraling in the air and turning in all directions. The sudden pull upward allowed Adrian enough time to grab MJ and bring her to the ground. Once he made sure she was safe, he flew back up and dealt with the Harry. While his mask was cracked, he shot something out from the forearm of his suit towards the crowd. A couple of miniaturized bombs exploded above the heads of the crowd. Screams erupted and people fled with officers trying to shoot up into the sky.

MJ turned around and rushed over to Peter. She saw how much of a beating he had taken. His suit was torn apart, bleeding from his broken nose, a black eye and multiple bruises and scratches. Colleen came over to MJ. “Hey, are you all right? Did he do anything else?”

“What, kidnapping me and trying to kill me isn’t enough?” Colleen backed off a bit. She crouched down in front of Peter, all the other vigilantes leaving them to deal with getting people towards safety as a few more bombs were sent down towards them. “Hey Pete, say something stupid to let me know you’re still alive.”

“I…was just about to…”

“Shut up. No way it doesn’t hurt when you try to talk.” She put a hand on his forehead and tried to get him to lean back to see how bad his face looked. “There goes our chance to have some boardwalk perv draw cartoons of us.” He tried to laugh but ended up groaning in more pain. She rubbed her thumb up and down his forehead to let him know she really was there with him and OK.

As she made contact with him, she felt something flow through her body. It reached through her arm, going straight to the palm of her hand. And then it left her completely. But Peter felt it enter into him. He got flashes of everything from his past. He remembered wearing that Iron Man mask when he was a kid, being with both Aunt May and Uncle Ben, meeting Tony Stark for the first time. Going up against Adrian and Quentin, while taking on an alien named Thanos in between. While the thing that was in MJ entered through Peter’s head, it spread throughout his entire body. His body started to be covered in a dark black substance. MJ pulled her hand back in surprise, seeing it cover up Peter’s entire suit and body. His scarred chest was covered, nothing but a smooth black surface. The last thing to be covered was his face, covering everything but allowing two white holes for him to look through. Similar to what his mask sported. Actually, he looked down and saw that the stuff covering his chest was also forming a similar white spider symbol like his suit had before it got ripped. He grunted a bit as he felt pain in his nose. It was intense, but it disappeared just as quickly.

“Can you hear me in there?” MJ asked cautiously.

“Yea. I…think this stuff healed my nose.” He stood up. The pain had numbed down significantly. In fact, it was almost gone all together. “Did you know you had…what is this?” 

Her eyes widened and she shrugged her shoulders. “I just thought I caught a bug at Flash’s place. But clearly it’s one of those bugs that instead of making you get a runny nose, it turns you emo.” She eyed him carefully. “Are you sure you aren’t secretly having your skin being eaten and you just don’t want to tell me?”

“No. I feel…great!” He felt a sense of newfound strength within him. Turning his head upward, he looked at the glider and Vulture fighting up in the air. MJ stepped back a bit, knowing he was going up there. He shot out a web, surprised a bit to see it black instead of white. He’ll worry about that later though. Right now, it was time to get up there and end this.

He pulled himself up to the side of a building, shooting another web out and hit the man on the glider right in the middle of his chest. It was too strong for him to try and rip it off his body, despite Harry’s attempts to do so. Peter pulled himself forward and slammed his body against the man in green’s. Harry flew back towards Peter, who let himself fall a bit before shooting another web and swinging away from the people. Adrian watched them leave before taking a note from Trish and fleeing away from the fight.

The two foe fought in the air, Harry using his glider to move around while Peter using his new black webs to swing and grab onto Harry to get closer. The web slinger felt his punches were stronger whenever he tried to hit the man on the glider. Harry aimed one of his miniature bombs and fired it at Peter. But he reacted just in time, grabbing it with a web and turning it around to throw it back. He aimed it to go underneath Harry, the glider itself taking most of the impact. But it did force him off the device and he began to fall. For a brief second, a voice in the back of Peter’s head wanted to watch. But Peter shot a web to grab the falling criminal while he shot another to grab onto the side of a building and swing down onto the ground. The police were at first unsure of what to do. Even Peter seemed to half expect them to still try and go after him. But a couple of the officers put away their guns and apprehended the man in green. They took off his mask, revealing Harry’s face, and the parts of his outfit that were deemed dangerous. The other criminals that remained were gathered up, leaving Peter Parker. The kid finally felt like he could finally breathe and truly relax for the first time in a while.

******

The following days have been a media circus. Oscorp has been under investigation for criminal activity. In regards to working with Quentin Beck, Norman and Melissa had given a statement regarding their involvement. Beck had come to them under the guise of wanting to create a business partnership. But he later threatened them into cooperating with his illegal activities, or he would take action against their son. That was how he got their cooperation, which included helping fake his death and to hunt down Peter Parker. Speaking of him, the statement also helped to clear Peter Parker A.K.A. Spider-Man of all criminal charges. As to his activities as the vigilante, that might take longer to sort out. But Foggy has agreed to help the Parkers, now accompanied by his partner Matt Murdock. But Peter got the feeling that the NYPD and the city would be willing to look the other way for a little while if he wanted to keep swinging around. As long as he doesn’t get into any more sky battles that could potentially harm civilians of course.

Peter and MJ were hanging out on the fire escape. Peter was back into his own clothes. Sort of. “Doesn’t it feel weird that you have goop covering your junk?” MJ asked him as they overlooked the street outside his home.

“It feels like…underwear.” Peter shrugged. He looked down at his regular clothes, which was actually the black stuff that changed itself into clothes. “Just trying to figure out what Osborn was doing with this.”

MJ thought for a moment. “You said he had some sort of cloning machine?” Peter nodded. “Maybe he was using that to create the clone body. That or witchcraft anyway.” Peter stood straight as he held onto the railing. MJ looked over to Peter, catching his eye. “Is your aunt trying to ground you forever?”

“I mean, not really.” Peter moved his head back and forth, trying to figure out the best way to word it. “She is still really worried. I’m trying to only go out when I have to, just to give her some peace of mind. And to not be caught in so many selfies.” 

“Right. What about those other guys you were with? Can they help you out?”

“If I need it, sure.” Peter smiled a bit as he turned around. “I got Miss Jones’s number from my aunt. Probably sent her one too many texts and now I’m pretty sure she is trying to block me.” He looked back inside. “I think my tutor is supposed to come over any minute now.”

“Tutor?” MJ asked. “It’s still summer>”

“Yea, but May wants to make sure that I don’t fall behind on school while going out as Spider-Man. Which isn’t so bad.” He heard the door open from inside and heard someone else’s voice in addition to his aunt’s. The two of them headed back inside the apartment.

“Peter, I want you to meet Felicia.” Peter’s eyes widened and his eyebrows shot straight up. Even MJ seemed surprised as she recognized the woman from Flash’s apartment, but did a little better job at hiding it. She wore a blue NYU sweatshirt with jeans, a briefcase over shoulder. Her hair was let down, and she gave Peter a big and knowing smile. May brought her into the apartment. “Oh MJ, did you want to stay for dinner? I didn’t know if you wanted to stay.”

She shook her head. “I should be getting back home. Later.” She patted Peter on the back before moving around and out of the door.

May waved goodbye as she left the door. She turned back around. “Felicia used to be a student at NYU. Remind me, what do you do now?” She asked the white haired girl.

“I do various things.” She responded with a kind smile. “Some freelance work here and there, but mainly whatever I can do. But I promise to give Peter my full attention. And I won’t let the fact he is celebrity get us off track when school starts.”

“Good. So Peter, I invited her for dinner, just to get to know each other before school starts. Should be ready in a few minutes.” 

“Let me help you Miss Parker.” Aunt May thanked for her assistance, telling her to just call her May. She briefly turned around and winked at Peter before heading into the kitchen. He had to remind himself to act normal, remind himself that everything is fine. She is a friend, if a bit too forward and comfortable with him. But he let out a sigh and still smiled, just happy to be back home.


End file.
